Day 493 & 494 Work, walk and road trip.

They raise their mosquitos big here in Ft. Bragg.  Those boards are 6 inches wide.  Tracy saw two of these big guys(or girls) in the restroom up on shore.  We took their picture and left them alone.  Not something we wanted to annoy. 
The entry to Noyo River at Ft. Bragg.
Heading up river to the Marina around the far corner at the top of the photo.
The beach at Drake's Bay looking West into a large fog bank.  There's lots of land out there, you just can't see it.
Looking East--the same fog.  It's everywhere out there.
Finally starting to clear--sort of-- out near the end of the bay West of the beach as we walked out to the car.

Friday started with the change of the diesel injector oil.  We had again reached the 50 hour+ mark so out with the old and in with the new.  I've done it so many times, it no longer takes a lot of time.  It takes as much time to get the tools together as it does to do the job.  All in all, about 35 minutes.  She is still behaving well and only giving me about as much oil when it comes out as I put in--12 ounces.

We took off for town checking in with the marina office to let them know we would be leaving on Saturday for Drakes Bay, about 105 miles South of here.  Up the hill and into town to find Safeway and see what else Ft. Bragg had to offer.  As it turns out--not much.   We returned to Zephyr, groceries in hand for a quiet evening before we set out on  Saturday.

We'd planned on leaving about 1300 as it's about an 18 hour sail to Drakes Bay and we wanted to arrive in daylight.  We now subscribe to BuoyWeather.com.  A weather service that will give you pinpoint forecasts for any area of the globe you happen to be in.  By Saturday morning, the weather had changed and the coast below Point Arena--the next cape we had to cross had turned bad by Sunday afternoon--about the time we would be getting there to a "hazardous seas" warning with wind up to 30 knots and mounting seas.  Thanks, I think we will pass as it's not to bad here at all.  Clouds and the occasional fog bank rolling in.  

So we changed plans and found Enterprise Rent a Car and called for a rental.  I talked to the local agent.  They had cars on hand but we would need to keep it till Tuesday as they were closed on Monday.  The cost---$$205.50 for a compact car for a three day rental, but she would let us have it for $174.68 since I belong to the Enterprise Club.  I told her we would think about it and get back with her.  That's almost $60.00 per day--WOW!  I got on line clicking a link from an earlier promo ad from Enterprise and made reservations for the exact same car for $94.00 for all three days.  That's $80.00 less than what she quoted!!!  I called her back and gave her my reservation number and she said that it was always cheaper when you book on line and that she would have someone pick us up in about 25 minutes.  

Up we went and after inquiring of the driver of a good local eatery--Jenny' Giant Burgers's--for lunch we went in search of the restaurant.  They've been here for over 25 years and after eating one of their burgers, we really had to wonder why?  They were tasteless and the fries greasy and also lacking flavor.  We left quite disappointed--and still hungry strangely.  

We took off for Drakes Bay where we had planned on sailing to to see what it looked like.  Along the way South on the 101, we saw signs for Calistoga, a town we first visited 25 years ago or more and had stayed at the Mount View Hotel in the center of town.  It's now a hotel and spa and still doing well.  Unfortunately, we chose the wrong weekend(Labor Day) to visit.  The town was packed with people and cars out for one last hurrah before the end of Summer.  What a mad house.  Restaurants packed with people paying big prices for so so food from what we could see.  Back in the car and West for Santa Rosa and the coast.

A quick(and cheap lunch at Wendy's) and out with the Mac computer and on line we went to get good directions to the bay.  It helps to have access to the internet(thanks Verizon) as we rolled down the road.  It took us right to it with no problems.  Lots of people playing in the sand and some with the guts to go out in the cold water.  We stayed about 30 minutes and plied back in the car for the trip back to Zephyr.  By now, it was 1800 and we had a trip ahead of us.  There is no freeway to Ft. Bragg.

We headed over to Petaluma and up the 101 to Cloverdale and over the side roads to Ft. Bragg getting home about 2130.  It had been  a long impromptu day with lots of mileage and sights seen as we went down the country roads.  Strangely, we had no yen to stop at any of the wineries as we passed them.  Not sure why other than poor Zephyr already has quite the supply of wine already on board.

Today--probably down Coast Highway 1 to see what it has to offer.  We will see.